and FDR,

who initiated a military draft prior to Pearl Harbor...

``When Hitler attacked Poland in September 1939, Roosevelt stated that, although the nation was neutral, he did not expect America to remain inactive in the face of Nazi aggression. Accordingly, he tried to make American aid available to Britain, France, and China and to obtain an amendment of the Neutrality Acts which rendered such assistance difficult. He also took measures to build up the armed forces in the face of isolationist opposition.

With the fall of France in 1940, the American mood and Roosevelt`s policy changed dramatically. Congress enacted a draft for military service and Roosevelt signed a ``lend-lease`` bill in March 1941 to enable the nation to furnish aid to nations at war with Germany and Italy. America, though a neutral in the war and still at peace, was becoming the ``arsenal of democracy``, as its factories began producing as they had in the years before the Depression.``